Adventures in Nicaragua: Thanksgiving Week

This week flew by fast! Our investigator Manuel who had a drinking problem has finally gotten baptized! He hasn't drank in 3 weeks! He received a blessing of strength from the Elders and hasn't drank since.

This is Manuel who got baptized! He's super tuanies!

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need your prayers for a little old lady named Dorothy. She lives with her daughter who is awful and I mean awful. Dorothy had a stroke about a year ago that left the left side of her body without any movement so she's in a wheelchair and can only move her right arm and right leg. She wears a diaper and always smells like urine and her room is so bad. Her daughter won't help her at all. The day of her baptism Sister Greenhalgh had to bathe her and help her with everything. Turns out her diaper was soaked through because it hadn't been changed in 5 days. She's skinny, REALLY skinny, it feels like I'm hugging a skeleton. The other day was so sad. We can't take her to church because her daughter won't get her ready and we don't have time to bathe her and get her ready; but, yesterday we saw her and we went to talk to her outside of her house and she saw us and broke down crying. She asked us why we didn't take her to church and how awful her daughter is and how hungry she was. Hermana Greenhalgh and DeLeon went to make her some food while we found out that she hasn't eaten in 2 days. I think it might have been more but she's also diabetic and her blood sugar was low. She told me how her daughter calls her a pig and other names. She said she has no one but God. We got the phone number of her other daughter who lives in the States and we talked to the bishop and we're trying to find a way to help her. It seriously broke my heart the other day.

I'm now 6 weeks into the mission and I'm teaching lessons by myself now. If I'm teaching a lesson and don't know what to say next, I usually look at my companion; but, now she just stares at me and so I continue to talk and struggle through it, which is good because how are we going to get anywhere if we don't struggle.

When I was told before the mission that it would be rice and beans.......they weren't joking. I eat rice and beans for days! WAHOO!! Thanksgiving we did go out as a zone and ate fries, chicken, and finally vegetables! All the while I thought about pumpkin pie. YUM! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

I love you all and hope you're doing well!